I was not quite sure how I felt as I went out to the 2 mile race this morning. My right ankle still felt a little sore, but I figured it would not be a problem. Once the race started my breathing seemed to be the main problem. I could not quite get it right. I went through the first mile in 7:22 and the second mile I seemed to be hanging on, running 7:40. For a total time of 15:02. A time I am still quite happy with.

I came home and watched the second half of the Arsenal v Man Utd game, which Arsenal won 2-1,a very good game.

I just watched President elect Barack Obama's acceptance speech for the first time today and I will admit that I had tears in my eyes. There is such a sense of new hope, that we just have not had for a little while.
Today was a day for me to tidy up a few things at home and hopefully get a lot more done this weekend.
My ankle is still a little sore, but there is improvement.

This morning I woke up with a sore calf and was not quite sure where it came from. I then remembered that I had turned my ankle when I went out for my run yesterday. Though it did not bother me much at the time I guess it strained some of the muscles and tendons around it. It seemed to get better as the day went on, but I noticed my hip was a little sore on my walk back home. It should not be a problem, but it just goes to show how one little thing can affect others.

Today in the land where I was born they celebrate Guy Fawlkes. The man who tried to destroy the leadership of a country with his own hands.
Yesterday America elected a man who they hope can restore the leadership of the most powerful country in the World.
I just made sure I got a nice run in this afternoon, on a showery first day for the President elect.

I did watch the New York Marathon on TV and was a little disappointed with the coverage. I was glad that Paula Radcliffe won for the women.
I used to know a lot of people that ran the marathon, friends and acquaintances, but there was only one this year. Someone who I know from the multi-day races is a runner named Shishaldin and she ran.

Well here we are the day before the US Elections and everyone is talking about "History".
I am the only one who can really effect my life. If I can try to live my life in a positive way and deal with the negative things around me, in a positive way. Then I think I can be happy with my life. It may seem a bit philosophical, but we have to be.

Well it's the morning of the marathon and it is quite cool and windy, but with bright sunshine. Probably good conditions for the race. Utpal and I ran around 6 miles (10k)and we plan on watching the TV coverage after a little breakfast. Maybe I'll give a report tomorrow.

Due to other events happening today and this weekend, there was not a big turnout for the 2 mile race this morning. So I found myself in second place for the first mile, my time being 7:20. I had some congestion which did not help my breathing and I dropped back to third place with about 3/4 of a mile to go. With a time of 14:59, I did manage to break 15 minutes and was quite satisfied.

Hey today is Halloween and the weather is just perfect. Believe it or not I spent the afternoon at a pet supply store looking at bird cages. I mean the big one, for Parrots. I had not been in a pet store for quite a while, they can be fun places.

Sometimes when she does not want to deal with everything that is going on in the shop floor. Our cat has a warm and safe place to sleep in the comfort of the lunch room.

I saw this little guy a couple of weeks ago while walking home from work on one of those warm days. It did not seem at all bothered by me.
It seems that while we were getting quite a lot of rain here in NYC, upstate they were getting snow. There is a report that a highway was closed because of 9" of snow and it is still October!

The rain was lashing down really hard this morning and in one place the road was a little flooded. I got a new pair of Dunlop wellies this weekend and I was wearing them, so the flooding was not a problem. I did discover that my waterproof pants are not completely waterproof, oh well!

After several days of cold weather it was quite mild when I left for work this morning. The high temperature this afternoon was about 8 degrees higher than was predicted, so it made for a pleasant day.
Yesterday the clocks went back in Europe, but did not go back here yet, so the time difference is a little closer for a while.

Not quite so cold this morning. Utpal and I went out and ran about 6 miles. We then went into the upper west side to help a friend with some stuff in a storage place.It turned into a nice afternoon, but I spent most of it indoors helping the brother and sister of the friend who died sort through some of his stuff.

Surprisingly it was not so cold this morning for the 2 mile race.The last few days have been a little bit stressful, so it was nice to run the race. It was a bit of a struggle since my legs were still tired from the 2 long races I've done in the last 3 weeks. I tried to just keep my form and stay as close as I could to runners I knew. I went through the first mile in 7:36, the second in 7:29, for a finishing time of 15:05. I am very happy with that.

It was cold this morning, 37 degrees F to be precise. It was the first time that I wore my winter coat.
For my friend who died recently there was a viewing at the funeral home. He worked for Homeland Security and there was an Honor guard by his coffin the whole time. It was kind of special. His brother and sister, who I had dinner with last night, are very nice. She is from the mid west and he is from the Pacific north west. I have some idea what is going on with them.

Things have really begun to slow down at work, but it is hard to say if this is because of the economic situation in the US. We have of course had periods like this before and we were busy at times when we usually are not. So we just have to wait and see.
I have other things to think bout at the moment. The friend who died recently will be cremated on Saturday and there will be a service for him tomorrow.

My run this afternoon marks 6 months since I missed a day of running, or in other words I have run every day for the last 6 months. Today's run was cold and very windy, but the legs felt pretty good.

My upper legs have been sore all day. I think maybe I used some muscles during the race that I have not used in a while and of course they were still tired from the 24 hour race. I guess this is the experience of doing the 2 races so close together. My hip flexors seem to be the most sore. Time will heal them. I did jog a couple of miles again this afternoon.

I woke up this morning and I felt like I did after running my first marathon. My upper legs, mainly my quads were really sore. The walk to work helped to loosen me up a bit. This afternoon I took a short nap and then went out and jogged a couple of miles. This is all part of the recovery, which is all part of running the races. I feel very satisfied with the job I did. By the way did I mention that I was 28th out 90 male finishers.

Today I went out to Sunken Meadow Park, on Long Island and ran in a 6 hour race. It was mostly on trails and was quite hilly. It was cold and windy for most of the race. There were about 140 runners, some from the 24 hour race 2 weeks ago. In fact Byron Lane, who won the 24 hour race, won again today, and it was his 41st birthday. I ran 28.71 miles, which wasn't bad since it was only 2 weeks after doing 76 miles in the 24 hour race.

Well it has been a tough week and this morning I woke up with a slight head cold. Plus the temperature is in the mid 40's F. I decided to help out at the 2 mile race today since I have the 6 hour race tomorrow. I will go out shortly for an easy run. The weather is supposed to be the same tomorrow, so it will give me some idea of race conditions. Otherwise everything else is settling down now.

So today was a pretty normal day, after some of the strange days of the week. The weather is turning cooler.
Did I mention that I am running a 6 hour race on Sunday, I seem to recovered from the 24 hour, but with the odd ache and pain surfacing every once in a while. I think things will be OK.

The day began with the confirmation of the death of a friend who was killed while out running. As a result I spent the day dealing with that, but somehow something inside of me that came from previous experience came into play. I have done what I can do and now just have to let things play out. I am OK.

I tried to call the police precinct today to report a missing person and the desk Sargent at first said I had to come in person to do that. The asked me how old the person was, I said in his 50's and was told anyone over the age of 16 is not considered a missing person. I was the told to wait for them to come home. When is an older person considered a missing person? It seems that the police only want to help find young people who can not legally decide to go missing on there own.

Normally when people put out recycling items, there are a few people that come around and take some of the bottles and cans. This morning on the way to work I saw some guys with a truck pull up in front of an apartment building and load in bags of bottles and cans. I guess they want to cash in with bulk items.

I also saw a large Raccoon running across someones lawn.

Finally. I have signed up for a 6 hour race this weekend, let me see if I can do 50k.

There was not a lot to do at work today, but I got a lot done at home. My friend Carl from the UK called, we had lost contact for a little while. Hopefully everything is back on track now.

Today I ran with Utpal out to Flushing Meadow and we ran around the lake. it was a beautiful sunny morning with a temperature in the low 50's F.
Later in the day I was visited by some friends, Satu and Jennifer Ferentz. They are the wife and daughter of an old friend Dr Ferentz. He passed away on the same day in August that my mother passed away, only 7 years later. I have a very special relationship with them and it was very nice to see them. They had both come to pay their respects on the anniversary of the passing of my teacher Sri Chinmoy.

It is one year since the passing of Sri Chinmoy my meditation teacher and spiritual guide for almost 35 years. Over this weekend many will come to pay their respects. on a kind of pilgrimage to the New York borough of Queens. There was no 2 mile race today. So Utpal and I went out to run a few miles as a start to this day of remembrance.

I have slipped back into a work week where I don't work on Fridays.The workload has dropped in recent weeks and has allowed me to do this. I did get in a nice run early this morning, I felt like I had quite a lot of spring in my legs. So my recovery from the 24 hour race is good.
I am putting together a website primarily for my writing, my poetry etcetera and will put a link here when it is done, it may be a while though.

Photo by Jowan

Ray Kroliewicz is kind of an ultra running legend in the US, he adds a lot of energy to a race and always seems to get any observers involved. He has a family connection in New York and so has done many races here, though he lives in Pontiac, South Carolina. I have known him for probably 25 years, though we were out of touch for about 15 of those. In the photo here you see him at the start of the Ted Corbitt 24 hour race. Giving some direction ( I guess ) to Gary Corbitt, Ted's son.

Photo by Jowan

The guy with the beard is my friend Luis Rios. I have known him for about 20 years. When he was in his 30's he used to run a lot of races organized by the Sri Chinmoy Marathon Team and even won a few. Now he runs in some of the same multiday races as me and here he is in the Ted Corbitt 24 hour race that happened this weekend.

When I arrived at work this morning there were 2 Raccoons in the Havaheart trap, yes 2 of them. 2 juveniles, one a little older than the other. They seemed inseparable, which is probably why they both ended up in the trap together. They were quite timid and did not make a fuss when taken upstairs to wait for UPS pickup.
So it's 2 days since the end of the race and my legs did feel a little tired, when I went out for my run this afternoon.

Woke up this morning at my usual time and yes I was a little tight in the old leg muscles. I think the walk to work helped somewhat. I have a sore spot on the ball of my right foot, but other than that everything is good. Last year I ran 72 miles in Quebec and 81 miles in Ottawa, so my 76+ miles this weekend was right in the middle.

IT was supposed to be the perfect weekend for a 24 hour race. Cool and sunny, dry ( no rain forecast). There were 60+ runners at the start of the Ted Corbitt 24 hour race, a lot of old friends and some more recent ones. I got into a comfortable pace, the park where the race was is very scenic so that made the run even nicer.A couple of hours into the race we had a rain shower, but not enough to really bother anyone. I seemed quite comfortable for the first 14.5 hour, then I started to have some problems. I plodded on to the 16 hour mark then took a 45 minute sleep break, this helped and on returning established a solid mix of running and walking. After 1 more hour the rain started and was on and off for the next 4 hours. Sri Chinmoy Marathon team member Arpan De Angelo breifly held the lead in the race and held on to finish second. I was very happy to finish with 76.5 miles, which split the difference between my 2 races last year.
So here I am sore and happy.

Well it's cold out there 46 F and it should be the same during the night hours of the race. Typically I woke up and my Achilles tendon on my right foot is letting me know it is there. It looks like the weather will be pretty much like yesterday, which was very nice in the afternoon. I have time to get an early breakfast and will then take my ride with the other guys from the Marathon team.
The race starts at 10am and so will be finished at that time on Sunday. Wish me luck!

When I went for breakfast this morning I met 2 old friends. Ed Kelley and his wife Kim were in town from Sacramento. It seems Kim's grandmother in New Jersey has died. Ed won the 3100 mile race 2 times and finished second once.It was really nice to see them again.
A few hours later I went out for an easy 2 miles, just to make sure everything is working ok before the race tomorrow.

When I was in college I went to a party and heard the Keep on Truckin' album by Cheech and Chong and later bought the Big Bambu album. I saw a lot of their movies over the years, but never saw them live. They had a falling out and did not perform together after that. Well until now, they are on tour in North America and will be on Long Island later this month. I will however not go and see them, but it's cool to know they are out there again.

With 4 days to go to the start I just received my entry confirmation for the Ted Corbitt 24 hour race this weekend. It seems there will be about 60 participants, most of them local. With 4 of us from the Sri Chinmoy Marathon team. There will be a lot of old friends out there, so I will have an opportunity to catch up with them during the race. My running feels pretty good this week, so I am happy.

Well I came home in time to watch the second half of the Arsenal v Porto match. It was a very entertaining display of football from Arsenal. They won 4-0, but it could quite easily have been 7 or 8. So different to their at the weekend in the Premier League to Hull.

A few days ago I got to see the new DeNiro and Pacino film Righteous Kill. I have always liked Robert DeNiro and of course he was great in this movie. I thought the acting was good and the story did a good job of steering you in one direction, though I did figure out the plot twist before it was revealed. Someone said to me that DeNiro and Pacino alaways play themselves, but I think they are great, so there.

My friend Utpal is sick with the flu again, I think it's stress and he kind of agrees. We did go out and run anyway. It had rained during the night, but it was stopped by the time we went out, we just ran a few miles, nice and easy.
I bought my ticket for the UK, usually I fly direct to Manchester, but it seems there is no direct flight now. I guess it is due to schedule cut backs. Now I have to fly via London, which is a bit of a drag. So it takes a bit longer I am used to that, at least the ticket did not cost too much.

The morning was a little misty, well there was a light misty rain as I went out the door.There were just the usual stalwart runners out at the 2 mile race. I started of about the same as always and felt good throughout the race. Sitting back in 7th place I went through the first mile in 7:08 and finished strong in 14:17 and was quite satisfied with that. I am managing to maintain good times for my 2 mile races. there will of course be a break since I have a 24 hour race next week.

We have not had one for a while, but it one of those rainy days in New York. A nice steady rain that started last night and is continuing through the day. It sort of reminds me of how the Autumn begins, in the past it has been the change, between the Sun and heat of the summer.

Hiccups are interesting things they are not completely incapacitating, but they can be very annoying. I have not had them for quite a while, but I did yesterday afternoon and this afternoon, for about 5 minutes each time. I find that if I relax my breathing a little it does not take too long for them to go away.
I had a short but very powerful run this afternoon, it felt really good.

Yes it's Wednesday and I have been full of energy all day. Actually my metabolism has been going pretty fast and I seemed to be hungry a lot, but when I ate I got energy.

One of my favourite TV shows is back for it's 3rd season. Last night NBC aired the first 2 episodes of the new season of Hero's. I of course got to watch them online this afternoon when I finished my run after work. I think it was a good start.
There is a mosque in my neighbourhood and usually in the morning I see the local worshipers walking to morning prayers. It is still dark and I do not hear the call to prayer as I walk on.

My run this afternoon marked the 5th month that I have not missed a day of running. My philosophy is to just feel when I want to go out and run and unless it's a race day, not have any preconceived idea of how far I will run. In this way I find I totally enjoy my running and when I run every day my body is happy to run. I am very happy with how my running is going right now.

A beautiful fall morning greeted us as we set out for our run. It was time for us to start doing our runs out to Shea stadium. It is the first time since the Spring that we have done this run. In the middle of the run I started feeling like I was really hungry and losing energy, despite that fact that I eaten a granola bar before leaving the house. I tried to ignore it and it went away. We maintained what I thought was a good pace for us. Stopping on the way back for our traditional Hot Chocolate, it was the longest run since the marathon in August.

With a temperature of only 52F, the conditions were nice and cool for the 2 mile race. I had been feeling a little off the last couple of days, but was still optimistic. At the start it felt like I was running slow, but I was up there with the leaders so I knew I was not. I settled into 5th place and just after the first mile in 7:07 was passed by the first placed woman. I stayed with her and passed her going up the one hill on the course. She passed me back and I tried to stay with her for the rest of the race. As I approached the clock I saw that it had just passed 14 minutes and crossed the line in 14:11, my second fastest time in 3 years.

The first fall after we moved into the house I currently live in, I noticed some Autumn crocus ( Colchicum ) in one corner of the front garden. Well it is that time of the year and they are on display. There is a group of 7 of them a sort of purple/pink colour.
The temperature, for the first time since the Spring did not make it up to 70 F. There is a noticeable change in the season..

Almost 30 years ago I was given a book called " The Way of a Pilgrim and the Pilgrim continues his way". I was sorting through some of my things the other day and found it. It calls itself a spiritual classic from Russia. Well I started reading it again and it is very inspiring.
The weather has turned very fall like, it is cool enough in the mornings now that I am thinking of wearing a light coat.
I didn't mention, but my friend Sadhak got a gig this past weekend out on Long Island and he actually got paid. It was a private function organized by a library out there. He has a chance of another one.

The last couple of days there has been evidence at work that there is a Raccoon about, we have not seen one all summer.So of course we put out the Havaheart trap out and this morning there she was. We have noticed that the females are quite docile when captured, with the males being quite aggressive when they see you. So it is time for our Fedex guys to take her to freedom land

We all use some kind of machine these days and they can be quite useful. However when they go wrong they can be a pain. One of the machines I use at work decided it wanted a rest , but as it did so it created another problem. The guy who fixes our machines when we cannot do it ourselves was really busy at the time, so that caused a little delay.
The afternoon has become quite overcast and looking like rain, but nothing has fallen as yet

As I left for work at 5:20 this morning I noticed a very bright Moon in the sky. It allowed me to see that the sky was blue, with a few white puffy clouds.
whatever gave me the sore throat yesterday seems to have gone as there was nothing this morning..
We seem to be in a warm spell at the moment, with temperatures reaching into the 80's F, but more cooler weather is on it's way.

Woke up with a sore throat this morning, but other than that I was fine. Met Utpal on the corner at the usual time. It was cool but quite humid. We ran the 10k loop at a relaxed pace. It was suggested that we maybe go out again in the afternoon. but by the afternoon I did not feel I wanted to run a second time.

The conditions for the 2 mile race this week were the same as last week. It rained overnight, was cool but humid in the morning. This week I had a couple of familiar runners in the race and this helped me with my pace. I was 2 seconds faster through the first mile 7:0, but 2 seconds slower in the second mile. So my finish time was the same 14:27. I am happy that I am consistent.

Last night I couldn't decide if I was going to go to work this morning for just a few hours, or take a day off. Well I slept really well and woke up an hour later than usual, so the decision was made for me.
I went out for a nice run in the morning, it was cool and overcast. I then filled out and mailed my application for a 24 hour race the first weekend in October. I have a couple of friends who have gone up to Ottawa for a 24 hour race this weekend, which I had thought of doing, but didn't really have a ride up there so decided not to.

Seven years ago today I was flying on a plane from Europe to New York. When we got withing about 3 hours of our destination we were told something had happened and we would be returning to Vienna. I spent the next 4 days in a hotel there watching everything unfold from afar. It was very strange for me to return to New York on September 15, the first plane to arrive in JFK. I have never flown into an airport that is completely quiet. Also seeing the plume of smoke rising from lower Manhattan as we made our approach was very eerie.

I have just watched the England football team beat Croatia 4-1 in their World Cup qualifier in Zagreb. They completely controlled the game and should have had more than 4 goals. It seems like they finally played the way coach Capello wants them to. It is the first time that Croatia have been beaten at home ever. I guess the media will now begin to believe in the new coach.

There was some rain this morning and into the afternoon, temp's stayed cool only reaching 71F.
The new laptop is up and running and I have to say it is pretty lively, still have a lot of things to do to make run the way I want it, but I really like it.
Managed to get in a nice run this afternoon and I must say my legs felt pretty lively too. So all in all it's been a good day.

A very nice day here in New York, it's beginning to feel a little fall like.
A few days ago I decided to upgrade my laptop, so I bought an Acer Extensa from Newegg. Well it arrived at lunchtime, I will take a little time to set it up. I am very happy with just the look of it.
Because of the crazy weather on Saturday, the US Open Men's final is happening today. I am watching it as I write this post. Andy Murray, who is in his first Grand slam final, is not having a good match against Roger Federer. Having lost the first set 6-2 and it's 4-4 in the second.

Tropical storm Hanna, which what was left of hurricane Hanna hit around 3 pm yesterday. It was pretty heavy for a couple of hours. but then became just a steady rain. By this morning it was nice for my Sunday run. However Utpal is suffering from a late summer cold, so we just ran what I call my 5k loop. Which was fine with me since I was still feeling sore from the race yesterday.

There was some rain overnight so of course it was humid this morning ( so what's new!). The race field was small this week, only about 20 runners. I was in fact in third place at one time early on, getting passed by 3 runners ( one of them the first woman finisher) about half way through. I tried to use them to keep my pace. I went through the first mile in 7:08. It was hard to breath with the humidity at 91%, but I held on as well as I could. My finishing time was 14:27, second best this year. So my fitness is still good.

It is hurricane season here in the US, well mainly down south. Last weekend Gustav went through down there, this weekend it's Hanna, which is then coming up the coast towards New York. Today it is already affecting the weather, increasing the humidity, that is counteracted by increased winds that make it feel cooler when outside.
I watched the England U21 team beat the Portugal U21 team 2-0 this afternoon. Gabriel Agbonlahor scored a great second goal and Micheal Kightly of Wolves got to come on for the last few minutes.

I have discovered that I can watch the US Open on my computer. So the last couple of days I have watched some tennis before going out for my run and than watched a little in the evening. So far I have watched 2 Federer matches, 1 each Djokovic and Murray and part of the Williams siste 1/4 final.
It has been much warmer the last few days and today more humid. If it was not so cool in the mornings it would almost be like a regular August.

I don't know why, maybe a throw back to the raw food thing, but I had a salad for breakfast and salad for lunch today. I felt pretty good and the day went by quickly at work.

Part of the process of buying my Grandfather's farm in Croatia was to take citizenship to avoid taxes. Well I was told at the weekend that on January 1st 2009, a new law comes into force that eliminates that need. My original plan was to purchase the farm in the new year, but thought maybe I could do it sooner. Now if I wait 3 months I can save time and bother.

Labor Day here in the US, so no work. This meant that I got to go out for a morning run for the third day in a row. It was quite cool and I just ran a couple of easy miles.
The day has been sunny and warm and unusually quiet.
My friend Sadhak called me late morning yesterday to say he had a gig at the cafe just around the corner from me. So I joined a medium sized crowd around 6:30pm and drank Jasmin tea while listening to about an hours.
Oh by the way did I mention that after winning 5-1 this weekend, Wolves moved to the top of the Championship. It is only 4 games into the season.

It's Labor Day weekend here in the US, but this morning was just Sunday morning. This of course means that Utpal and I went for our Sunday morning run. I was feeling pretty good, but he had a hard time in the marathon last week, so it was his run to set the pace. We did what I call the 10k loop and about 4 miles in he called a walking break, which we did for about 1 minute. So Sunday's are back on schedule.

Early this morning a band of thunder storms came through the area and dropped quite a lot of rain,as a result it was very humid again for the 2 mile race, but at least it was not raining. Since it is a week after the marathon my usual expectation is to run around 16 minutes, but last week I was a little better than that 1 day after the marathon. So this I thought maybe I can match it. I thought I was running quite fast, but was not sure, unfortunately there was no split time at the 1 mile this week. I was really surprised when I started my sprint into the finish and could see the clock reading 14:30. I crossed the line in 14:34, my fourth best time this year!

It is now a week since I ran the marathon and the 2 mile race the next day. I have run just easy runs all week, there is still some stiffness in my upper legs, but I feel OK. I am quite happy with my recovery and now trying to decide what my next races will be.

There are just a few days left in August and the mornings are still so cool. In the 30 years I have lived in New York I do not remember it being this cool in August. I am sleeping really well because it is so nice at night, but even so I was feeling quite tired at the end of my work day and took a nap before going out for my afternoon run.

Today is the anniversary of the birth of the founder of the meditation group ( Spiritual group ) I belong to. So believe it or not it is a holiday from work. I ran early in the morning in the my friend Utpal and later attended a special meditation at the place where he is buried. There will be several events during the day to celebrate his life.
It is the first time we have celebrated his birthday since his passing in October of last year.

A few interesting things I saw the last couple of days are;While standing outside with some friends the other night a Praying Mantis flew down and landed near one friends feet. I put my hand down and it crawled onto it, allowing me to take it and put it on the grass nearby.
A Sparrow flying behind a Cicada that was trying to fly away from it.
A 2 year old boy walking a Pekingese dog, with his mother walking just in front of him, it was so cute he had a diaper and everything.

Here we are 4 days after the marathon and there is still some stiffness in my upper legs. Of course I did run a 2 mile race the next day so that is probably a contributing factor, though I think it may also help.
It was one of my short days at work, so that wasn't so bad. I have gained back the weight I lost during the marathon. I have had a healthy appetite for the last few days.

I slept very well last night. This morning there was still some soreness, but Utpal and I had arranged for our usual Sunday run and there he was waiting for me ask I came out the door. Of course we were both feeling the marathon, so it was a gentle run. We ran what I call my 5k loop and then stopped to get a drink. Once again the morning was pleasant.

Yes my upper legs felt a little stiff this morning and I jogged over to the 2 mile race not sure if I would run. I did run and expected to run really slow, but as the race progressed I started to feel OK.I went through the first mile in 7:57 so I thought I could finish with a low 16 minute time that I would be happy with. As I approached the finishing line I saw that the clock said 15 something and was surprised to finish in 15:54, with my second mile also being 7:57.

So today was the Marathon. It was in the beautiful Rockland Lake State Park. The weather at the start was quite cool. The first loop around the lake is 2.7 miles and each 1 of 8 more loops is I think 2.95 miles. I felt quite good until 18 miles and then I started to mix in some walking. At that point I was well ahead of my past from last year. With about 4 miles to go I started to struggle a little and my pace slowed. I had been on course to reach my goal of 4 hours and 30 minutes, but I was very happy to finish in a time of 4:45, which is 6 minutes faster than last year. When I got home I weighed myself and I was 4.5 pounds lighter than before the race. I feel really good and if I don't feel too sore tomorrow will try and run the 2 mile race.

The last 2 mornings have been nice and cool with temperatures around 60 degrees F and it promises to be the same tomorrow. The Marathon is upstate and inland a little, so it could be even cooler at the start, which is at 7 am. Ran comfortably this afternoon, so I'm ready to go

Not much to say really, a bit of a quiet day, though I did get a lot done at work. Jogged an easy couple of miles after work

Here in New York you see some interesting phenomena. I quite often see people using a line trimmer to cut their lawns and grass verges in front of houses instead of using a mower.
Or I will see someone using a cylinder type hand mower set at 1/2 inch, struggling to cut grass that is 6 to 8 inches tall. My old teachers in college would go crazy if they saw it.
Ran this afternoon, just enough to loosen up my legs.

Rather than go in and work just a few hours today,since it's marathon week I decided to take the day off and and relax a little more. The morning was beautiful and Utpal and I went out for an easy 3 mile run.

Although it is officially tomorrow. Today is the 13th anniversary of my Mother's death. Yes I miss her, but I remember her very fondly and carry her in my heart always.

So here we are 5 days before the marathon and conditions for the 2 mile race are excellent. I didn't want to run too hard because I only have a few days to recover, but when you get into the middle of a race it's hard not to run fast. Anyway it felt like I was running well and I was quite happy with the time of 14:32, which was still fast for me but slower than previous weeks.I am feeling good about the marathon on Friday.
The GB team are having an excellent weekend at the Olympics, winning lots of medals and moving up to 3rd on the medal table. The first time they have been there in 100 years.

Due to some scheduling problems there was no 2 mile race today, it will now happen tomorrow. So Utpal and I decided to do our Sunday run today. We ran the first 5k together at a nice easy pace, but when I left him to come back I couldn't seem to stop myself from running at a strong pace. A few of my friends have just come into town. Yesterday.
I have been watching on the BBC website how the GB athletes have 7 medals on what is being called "Super Saturday".

Last night we had a huge storm and then it continued to ran for quite some time. The result was that when I got to work this morning there had been some flooding in the basement. I set to with the shop vacs and had pretty much cleared everything up by the time the rest of the guys came in to work. So that they could start their day as usual.
1 week from today is the marathon and I feel pretty good.

While out on my run yesterday I noticed 2 cops in a patrol car had stopped 4 young men ( 2 white, 2 black ), they seemed to be quite cooperative and 2 of them were being searched. This is not of course a typical day in NYC and I am sure not a typical day in most cities.
The weather is getting warmer and more humid, but then it is the middle of August.

They say you should lift with your legs and not your back, that's what I did yesterday. I am feeling it in my legs today. On my way home from work my hamstrings were very tired. I did have a 30 minute nap and when I went out for my run it felt a lot better. With the old method of unloading I would also feel it in my arms and shoulders.

Today was lumber day at work, this usually involves about 8 guys unloading a truck of 14/16 foot boards of Poplar, one board at a time down 2 window shoots. The new way is with 8 foot boards on pallets, unloaded with a pallet jack. However the shipment came with some pallets double stacked, so we had to break these down which took a little longer. The job did only use 5 guys and we learned some valuable lessons to how to do it better next time. This is the first time we have received a shipment this way.
The cat by the way seemed quite content to stay in the packing and shipping area all day.

Our work cat "Nipples" ( yeah I know) is back. I thought I heard her meowing inside one of our sucking air ducts. After opening it up and not finding her, we realized that she was on the floor above us.She had somehow got trapped in a room on the first floor of the building, we are in the basement. Anyway we got to her and she spent the morning walking all over the shop, she was not thin from not eating, so she must have used her hunting skills.
We had thunderstorms again today and it kept the temperature cool, around 65 F (16 C ). So I had a very pleasant run this afternoon.
I must wish my sister a very happy birthday. I did actually speak to her earlier in the day.

This morning it was around 65 F when I went out for my run. The humidity was a little high, but it felt really nice to run. I am 12 days away from the marathon and although I am still running twice on Saturdays and Sundays, I am running less. I am starting what we call a taper. I ran only about 5 miles yesterday and 9 miles today in 2 runs each day.
I am trying to catch something of the Olympics, which seems quite interesting so far. Happy that GB got a Gold in cycling this morning.

My 2 mile race this week was not as fast as last week, but still probably my second fastest time in a couple of years. My breathing didn't feel so great, but everything else was going well. My time was 14:28 and I am very happy with that. We were very lucky that the temperature was in the mid 6o's F and the humidity was also in the mid 60's. So good conditions and a good result.

Abichal Watkins from Wales, who I consider a good friend finished the Self-Transcendence 3100 mile race race today in a New Welsh and UK record of 54 Days 11 hours 36 minutes. I was very happy to hand him the Welsh flag during his last lap.

My friend Abichal is on his lat full day of the 3100 mile race. He has been out there for 54 days and should finish about half way through the 55 th day. He trained hard all winter for this race and will improve his best time by almost a full day. Pretty amazing!

In my post yesterday I mentioned missing things. Well our cat at work has been missing for 10 days now. She has been known to go away for a while in the past and has been gone as long as 2 weeks, only to return happy to see us and apparently none for the worse. So of course we are hoping she will be back soon.

When I got to work this morning one of my tools was missing, I did eventually find it, but it sort of messed up my day. As a result I made a couple of mistakes, which were correctable, but it kind of unsettles your day when something like that happens.

I have mentioned the problem with my Achilles before and that I thought the real problem was my calf. Well it happens that a friend of mine from Chicago is in town for a couple of days and he is a non practicing Chiropractor. He uses the Applied Kinesiology technique. He diagnosed it as a stretch response problem with the fascia of the calf and gave me a treatment. This is the same guy who fixed my foot problem last year.

The weather was really nice this morning, not so humid and a cool breeze. I ran 8 miles in the morning. When I went out again in the afternoon, it was a little hotter and even less humid. I did 4 more miles. I had enough time to get home and shower, then get back to the 3100 mile race in time to see Pranjal from Slovakia finish. The Slovakian Ambassador and his family came out. It was a nice ceremony

It has become a tradition for the 3100 mile runners to run in the 2 mile race, before and after they finish. So today Aprihanal ran the race after 4 days of rest. He ran an excellent time of 12:42, finishing 3rd amongst the men and 4th overall.
I was also very happy with my race. From early in the race I was running with 2 sisters who usually beat me quite easily. When they passed me as they usually do, I kind of looked inside myself to see if I had the capacity to stay with them and I did. For the next mile we see sawed back and forth, with them eventually opening up a 7 yard gap on me. They had however pulled me along to my best time in at least 2 years. A time of 14:08. Very very happy!

Yesterday was the 100 th day that I have run at least 2 miles each day. I had gone 60 days at the beginning of the year, so this is my longest streak for quite some time.
With my increased training and the summer heat, the extra pounds I gained after stopping my raw food diet have almost all melted away. It is just 3 weeks now to the marathon. I was thinking of running a 12 hour race tomorrow, but decided against it.